The Village of Downers Grove’s historic Main Street train station could have upgrades in its future.

Downers Grove officials reviewed an intergovernmental agreement with Metra and a contract for rehabilitation of flooring for the commuter station at their June 13 meeting.

“The Village was approached by Metra who has some available capital funding for commuter capital type projects—projects that were the highest priority and assisted us in providing commuter services and projects that could be completed this year,” said Nan Newlon, director of public works. “The Village is responsible for operating and maintaining the station through a long-term lease with the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad, and in reviewing this with building operations staff, it was determined that the flooring, here, at the station was of the highest priority of all the projects related to this building.”

“The flooring currently is a tile floor,” Newlon said. “It’s laid on basically ply wood on top of wood decking, so it’s a very old structure. What’s happening is that the wood decking underneath is warping and buckling and causing a lot of the tile to crack and to have trip hazards. There’s also not positive drainage on this floor, so that helps contribute to the deterioration of the floor.”

The Village is to approach the project through a design build contract with F. H. Paschen S. N. Nielsen Associates in the amount of $224,981.59. The award, if authorized, is to include fixed prices and performance standards that were bid through the City of Naperville in a job order pricing contract.

“The company has done this, and we have ordered with them through this job order contract in the past for the downtown trash enclosure most recently, also for the police station generator and for repairs to the Finley well house,” Newlon said. “This method of contracting worked well for us in those projects.”

Newlon said Village staff is recommending approval of the contract as it is proposed.

The awarding of such a contract includes “phasing this work in such a way as to provide access to things, such as ticket windows and the bathrooms, as they do the work,” Newlon said.

Commissioner Marge Earl recognizes that work needs to be done, and questioned to what extent Village staff is considering the aesthetic look of the tiles.

“It looks like a very ‘70s, I just thought that there might be something more appropriate that was echoing the age of the building, but I don’t know exactly what that might [be,]” she said.

Newlon said the Village is to utilize a larger tile size this time around, and staff has not yet selected a tile.

“We’re looking for something easy to maintain and that will look nice in that facility,” she said.

Downers Grove officials will consider authorizing the intergovernmental agreement with Metra and awarding the contract at the council’s June 20 meeting.